In various episodes, we are shown glimpses of the huge underground hangars that hold and service the Eagles.

(Screenshots from The Catacombs archive)

In these shots, you can see that the walls of the hangars are made up of these protruding tetrahedrons, in a lattice almost like a beehive, with sections at the top that include windows, piping and other details, while some are just panels. There are also hangar doors and other features.

The simplicity of the walls made me think I could make a 3D printed set of module pieces that I could connect together to form various configurations of this hangar.

To start, I am making a simple wall with the paneled tops, and a corner beam. Later I may add a different detailed top, as well as a half-height tetrahedronal section as seen in some shots, as well as perhaps hangar doors, but for now, I’m sticking to a simple set.

To make these connect, I am using a bow-tie peg and slot. They are spaced to allow the tetrahedronal wall sections to flip upside down and connect correctly, and then the wall toppers can connect to the slots in the base length of those wall sections.

The Idea

During my summer vacation in Newfoundland this July I began sketching an idea for a trailer for the Halo Warthog. The sketches tried to use the contours of the body, which I would mold as side shells for an interior main cargo body, with wheels and an arm to attach to the Warthog.

While I was sitting around a very lovely rental cottage in Twillingate one evening…

…Greg Brown (Cotswold Collectibles) texted me and asked me if it would be possible to create and print a trailer for the GI Joe Adventure Team Vehicle (ATV).

I texted him back letting him know I was already designing one for the Warthog, so I was already thinking about it.

I got to work.

The GI Joe ATV

The GI Joe Adventure Team Vehicle (ATV) is a highly prized possession among Joe collectors. Many collectors have multiples. Originally, the ATV was sold in one of the most iconic GI Joe Adventure Team sets of all time – “Secret of the Mummy’s Tomb”.

This versatile six-wheeled vehicle came with a winch to haul up a newly-uncovered mummy. But it was far cleverer than that. Remove the winch, and you could put cargo rails into four slots in the body of the ATV. Those slots would later be re-used in a new version of the vehicle, now with tank tracks, called “The Trouble Shooter”. Now, a large electronic radio (with talking technology) would take up those four slots.

“Could make it RACCS Compatible too…“

One of the most versatile toys I have created was a collaboration between Greg and me. He wanted a platform that could fit over the cargo bay of the ATV/Trouble Shooter, which would fit into those four slots and hold various adventure equipment.

I wasn’t sure how that would work since my printers can’t print an object big enough to span that space. However, soon enough, I came up with a grid system on a two-part platform that snapped together for easy storage. Pegs on each side would snap perfectly and snugly into those four slots.

Greg wanted the new trailer to be able to slot the RACCS platform into it.

I did him one better.

The Plans

I began sketching, and while these are very rudimentary sketches, I shot them and sent them to Greg who seems to have no problem understanding what I’m trying to get across, though my drawing skills are not on display here. They are very rough sketches to flesh out the ideas:

This one shows my original concept as two halves, with the RACCS attached by separate tabs. The cargo section would fit into a frame, with curved springs for the wheels, and a metal axle between the wheels, riding under the body.

I changed a lot of that, to make it much simpler. I didn’t have to cut a metal axle, the plastic is strong enough to handle being a thick axle. And to avoid screwing or gluing the hub-cap into place I split the axle and made a wedge of the cap. Push the wedge into the splits until they snap and those wheels ain’t goin’ anywhere. And they spin nicely.

Below is a sketch of how I envisioned the built-in RACCS platform working. And it works exactly like this, and works great.

RACCS On Board

I incorporated the RACCS platform directly into the design of the trailer. And in a very clever way.

(RACCS closed and ready for action!)

Tabs in the side of the cargo body would fit into slots on the sides of slightly altered RACCS platform halves (otherwise identical to the original system) and it would allow the RACCS to slide into place over the cargo bay – and when not in use, slide out, angle downward, and store in the sides of the cargo bay itself. The tabs were square, and just fit into the slots. But at the end, those slim slots become a circle, and allow the platform to hinge upward, and then slot down the same tabs.

(RACCS out)

(RACCS up)

(RACCS stowed into the side.)

There are even slots in the floors for the connector pins on each side of the platform (which snap them together) to fit into.

Here’s where some serendipity comes into play:

As always I sent Greg a nearly complete prototype, and he discovered that the RACCS platform halves are fully functional when split open and pulled out to the sides. A completely unintentional bonus!

The RACCS Platform is optional. It can be removed simply by loosening the screws holding the body halves together, and re-tightening them.

Other Features

Other features I included are a folding leg which allows you to remove the trailer and have it stand upright as a mobile work station. Without this fold-down leg, the trailer would tilt forward and be useless.

Another: Notice in the original ATV there is a tab at the back with a brass eyelet. Clearly this is intended to tow cargo, but to my knowledge, HASBRO never used this feature.

This allows my Cargo Trailer to be towed, obviously.

So I added an identical tab to the back of my trailer. While the photo above shows it without the brass eyelet, I managed to find some perfect brass eyelets that fit like a glove into the tab, and acts identically to the original.

The upshot is you can daisy-chain these trailers as many as you like.

I took a photo of prototypes in a train:

The funky psychedelic one at the rear is an early print. I almost always print in colors I have a lot of but don’t use a lot. No need to waste the final colors on a prototype meant to test fit and function.

Sold As A Kit

Due to the size of this toy, I knew shipping a number of them to Cotswold Warehouse would be trouble, so Greg and I opted to offer this up as a kit. So I had to make it easy to assemble.

My printer’s maximum print capacity is not large enough to print the body as a single piece. So I had to cut it into four corners and make puzzle pieces out of them so they could snap together nicely.

If I was assembling it myself, I might just glue the parts together. Since Super Glue bonds to ABS so strongly it’s almost impossible to break, that would have worked fine.

But if people were going to assemble it, I wanted it to be as easy as possible.

So it’s designed to go together with screws, and as efficiently as I could engineer.

I also designed the body to be symmetrical. The wheels can fit into any slot on the sides, and the tow arm and rear hitch can fit into either end. This meant symmetrical screw holes too.

Two screws hold the sides together, and two each hold the tow arm and rear hitch, which has the dual purpose of attaching those pieces, and joining the two halves of the body.

A single screw connects the leg latch to the body. There are two screws to keep the axle assemblies on.

I used a metal nail, with the tip cut down, as a hitch peg, for strength.

I was able to use the Huxter Labs logo for the first time! I put them on the hub-caps and the tow arm.

Based on the AT Logo, I turned the A and T into an H which has a sort of L on the upper left.

Packaging

Normally when I ship my toys to Cotswold Collectibles, I use zip-lock bags and bubble-wrap, and pack them into large boxes. For this toy, sold as a kit, I would have to do something new.

I bought a bulk order of 4x6x6″ boxes to sell products on my ETSY store. These, it turns out, were perfect for packing this kit into. I worked out a fit system that allowed me to put a body corner in, put an axle on that, cover it with another body corner, repeat, then put the RACCS platform halves between them, the wheels on the side, and the rest of the parts in a zip-lock bag (including the screws and tow bolt) and they fit perfectly.

I printed instructions to fold into the package, and I printed a label for the box.

I love this song. Every time it comes on, I sing to it. Even in public.

But I’ve been hearing it a lot lately, because on my commute, I’m listening to 80s channels on Spotify and Pandora.

And when you get down to it, this song is damn creepy.

In the late 1980s Sting once commented on the trendy phenomenon of people using “Every Breath You Take” as a wedding song:

“Don’t you people realize this song is about a stalker!??”

Well this song is about a sexual user, and it could be construed, worse.

Josie’s on a vacation far away – My girlfriend is away, so… let’s fuck.
Come around and talk it over – Yeah… talk.
So many things that I want to say
You know I like my girls a little bit older – Ok… not specific, but how old IS Jose??? And you’re borderline too old for me, but I’m pretending that’s what I’m into…

I ain’t got many friends left to talk to – Wonder why, you asshole?
Nowhere to run when I’m in trouble – You get into trouble often do you? Not surprised.
You know I’d do anything for you – Yeah… right.
Stay the night but keep it under cover – Let’s keep this our little secret, ok?

I just want to use your love tonight
I don’t want to lose your love tonight

Try to stop my hands from shaking – Some kind of sudden realization?
But something in my mind’s not making sense – Guilt? Conscience bothering you?
It’s been a while since we were all alone
But I can’t hide the way I’m feeling – Yeah. Clearly.

As you’re leaving please would you close the door? – I’m done with you for the time being… don’t let the door hit you on the ass on your way out.
And don’t forget what I told you – I told you – this was OUR LITTLE SECRET!
Just ’cause you’re right that don’t mean I’m wrong – Well…..
Another shoulder to cry upon – Yeah, whatever, dude.

At my company, several times a year they host a Game Jam. Teams are given a week to come up with a game for judging. Since we use Unity, usually the teams write a game in Unity and have a bit of fun coming up with some cute little games.

This week we are holding one with the theme: “Don’t Go To Jail!”.

I usually don’t partake, as I’m usually way too busy doing my own thing, but this year my colleague Dan Parke asked me to consider helping him with a game idea, and I agreed to at least listen.

He pitched me an idea I was fascinated with right away. It was a physical game, not a computer game (as such) featuring hand movement in a game using a light sensor. The idea was to use your hand to manipulate a light on a project circuit board called Circuit Playground Express, holding it in one space for as long as you could. If you failed, you would “Go To Jail”, exactly the thing you’re supposed to avoid in this competition.

Dan thought a circuit board alone would not be very enjoyable, and was hoping I could 3D print something fun to house it in.

I was intrigued, and immediately came up with some sketched ideas for a casing for the game.

My first thought was, since I had made so many UFOs and other designs using Vending Machine bubbles, that the circuit board would perfectly fit under one, which would give us a nice first idea for a casing.

But with just the circuit board and a battery case to worry about, the casing could be quite small. But I thought since the theme was about jail, and the game idea was escaping arrest, that we needed to put this into a cartoon-like prisoner character.

My first sketch showed an angry moustachio’d villain, which I thought a bit too angry.

My second sketch was more emotive, a bit scared, hands up, perhaps in surrender.

And since we had exactly one week to create this game from the start, I knew I could call on existing creations to make this little guy work.

And with that, I began modeling, and soon had this basic character modeled:

Prisoner 0110 was born.

The Circuit Playground Express has touch capacitance on some of the contact points around the periphery, and that came in very handy. I was worried, though, that the capacitance would not conduct through a metal screw or other metal bit, and touching the circuit board itself would be impractical as game play. So I immediately came up with the idea of using two cotter pins I had in my own inventory already, and used a Dremel to cut them down to size, and angle the ends so they could slip over the circuit board’s contacts.

With this plan, I began immediately to model a body and a collar (a manacle) that would allow me to use these two cotter pins to secure the collar to the body and act as the function buttons of the game. Dan programmed the pins to accept touch control, and I modeled (and re-modeled, and re-modeled) a collar that would fit the circuit board and hold down well with the cotter pins.

Here you see the prototype body in green, the collar base in pink (and an earlier prototype in purple) and the collar cap also in pink. (I use these colors for test prints because I don’t use them much for real, and this is better than wasting colors I have to buy a lot.)

After I assembled this all and got it working, I began detail modeling which involved slicing the body into stripes (for a prison uniform) and adding the other details. Starting with a base that could fit the battery container, and feed the wire up to the head, with room in the body for the extra length of wire.

I drew a sticker for the mouth, and 3D printed eyes, manacles for the wrists, and slots for the arms. Assembly began.

Here he is on my office desk, being tested before we began real iteration on the game itself:

Meanwhile we did some play testing and found that the game was not quite what it could be. Dan worked on it some more and came up with the idea of having to use your hand to move a single light around the rim of the board (there are 10 lights around the circumference) and then a single light would light up, which would soon add another light to the right or left of itself, then another, in an ever-increasing arc that would come at your light “character” on either side, and your job was to hold your hand in such a way as to not let your light collide with the encroaching lights.

After that was working, complete with sound samples to tell players what to do, the game was more or less complete, and even kept track of high scores.

With a few suggestions from me during game testing, I thought flashing all lights green 3 times would be a great way to indicate you won the level, and failure should result in 3 flashes of red. I thought that would be intuitive to players.

And Dan’s original chase lights were purple. I thought the universal color for police would be more immediately recognizable, so he changed those to blue.

Now you are represented by a green light, which you can play with before you begin the actual game. Then you’re on your own. You can move the light around the perimeter until the cops start homing in on you. Then you have to hold your hand steady to keep the prisoner where he is. IF you can hold out with the police lights to both your left and right and not move it into them for a given interval, you win the level. If you collide with their lights for too long, you lose the game and go back to jail.

This is the final version as will be played by our judges:

The left cotter pin triggers the game to Start, while the right one can recall the high score.

Game Jam ends exactly as I’m typing this, and judging has begun. Two judges already told me they really liked the game.

This catalog features three of my latest designs, mostly space-themed.

On the left is a metal box I found at Lowe’s, to which I added a harness and antennae, as well as other details. This is my Mobile Communications Pack.

On the right is the Extravehicular Mobility Unit 10. This is a full outfit, and my part is the space helmet and chest mount, belt and belt-mounted oxygen scrubber which eliminates the need for bulky oxygen packs. And a wrist controller.

In back is my new Wing Pack, known as SWIFT (Swing Wing Individual Flying Transport), which features a swing-wing action and stowable joystick controller.

This year at Lowe’s hardware, the diamond plate cargo gift card box is no longer available. It was replaced with a metal box made to look a bit like their miniature tool chests.

Of course my brain went immediately to “Astronaut’s Oxygen Pack”. And that it certainly can be. But I went in a way that really could be used for various purposes, so I will call it my Hi-Tech Communications Pack.

Luckily I had a reel of ABS plastic filament for my 3D printers that closely matched the cobalt blue of the Lowe’s box. I started immediately to think of how to adapt it. First, I needed to cover the bottom, which is recessed, and contains the UPC code and other information.

Then I had to cover the Lowe’s logo on front. No problem.

Then I knew I would need antennae. So I modeled and printed a mount on top for two antennae.

And of course it needed a harness. I had produced a harness for my Action Pack Heli-Jet, which works nicely for most cases, but the front chest clasp was too complicated.

While designing a new flight pack for Joe (A Wing Pack coming soon!) I adapted the chest clasp to be far simpler to construct, and much less bulky, while still allowing a cover plate for a logo of some kind.

Using a single length of .9mm elastic I created a front piece that allowed me to thread it through in two directions, then into an upper frame piece, down the backpack, and into a lower frame piece, then on to the body where there are standard strap adjusters and two clasps which fit nicely into the front piece by friction and holds very strongly.

I am comfortable saying that this is my new harness design and most of my future backpacks, be they flight packs or simple backpacks, will use this new clasp, and not the bulky old one which had to be screwed together to work. (This cap snaps on nicely, and can even be removed, as the simple clasp frame is not too ugly by itself.)

The Final Product

Here it is, my Hi-Tech Communications Pack posed on my Club Exclusive Super-Articulated 12″ Super Joe that they produced last year.

Last year at Lowe’s hardware store I found a metal box sold as a gift card holder. It was in the form of a miniature diamond-plate pickup truck cargo box.

Needless to say I find it hard to shop anywhere without seeing every object that comes into my sight in a 1:6 scale filter, to see what I could make of it. This was a no-brainer.

I bought a few, took them home and began to think how I could best use them.

Since the new GI Joe Club Exclusive Mike Power Atomic Man had just recently arrived at my door, I figured how better to use this than to make it Mike Power’s personal equipment box.

It is a great fit for the GI Joe Adventure Team Vehicle or Trouble Shooter, too.

And around that time the Mattell Halo Warthog was making its rounds on Amazon at sell-out prices and a bunch of us collectors were getting them, and I’m no exception. I bought two green, and painted them (one in AT Yellow and the other in a bright AT Red) and then they came out later with a red version, so I have one of those too.

The cargo box fits nicely into the cargo bay of the Warthog.

The Final Product

Of course I wanted to cover up the LOWES logo, and make it Mike’s, so here is the final product:

What’s Next?

This, I should say, is almost finished. I have one other thing I want to do, and that is to put a tool-box-like handle on the top lid.

More on that later…

]]>http://www.huxter.org/words/?feed=rss2&p=33341Space: 1889-inspired Shiphttp://www.huxter.org/words/?p=3329
http://www.huxter.org/words/?p=3329#respondSun, 28 Jan 2018 18:09:39 +0000http://www.huxter.org/words/?p=3329Continue reading →]]>This is not a 3D model (not yet). It’s a ship I created in 1997 based on a ship from the Steampunk RGP game: Space: 1889.

At one point, Fine Scale Modeler featured a beautifully constructed model from the game, similar to the one shown below (not my model!)

But at the time I was envisioning my own world where air whales floated around like dirigibles, and I thought this was a nice base for an air whaler ship, which I then modeled in 3D in Lightwave, and rendered out as a fairly poor GIF file which I still have.

Keep in mind, this was 1997.

The wires spanning the two boom arms were to carry the weight of the slaughtered air whale, which would of course no longer be able to support its own weight in atmosphere.

]]>http://www.huxter.org/words/?feed=rss2&p=33290A Christmas Home Invasion – Doctor Who Photostory 2005http://www.huxter.org/words/?p=3306
http://www.huxter.org/words/?p=3306#respondMon, 25 Dec 2017 00:51:35 +0000http://www.huxter.org/words/?p=3306Continue reading →]]>Since my adventureteam.com page has finally gone down forever, I am reviving some of my web content and putting it elsewhere. That may take some time. In the mean time, let me re-post “A Christmas Home Invasion”, a short story I published on my page the Christmas after I finished my 8-part epic Doctor Who Photostory, The Second Key (which is still safely viewable).

]]>http://www.huxter.org/words/?feed=rss2&p=33060Star Trek Discovery Phaserhttp://www.huxter.org/words/?p=3293
http://www.huxter.org/words/?p=3293#respondMon, 18 Dec 2017 03:28:23 +0000http://www.huxter.org/words/?p=3293Continue reading →]]>The night I went to Rhode Island to visit the Regular Joes to watch them do their podcast, I was not really expecting Jason Isaacs (Captain Lorca)to pop by and sit with us for a half-hour or so going into great detail about his new show “Star Trek: Discovery”, but it was amazing.